Psychometric Testing: How Useful Is It?

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“There’s some value in it. It can help you compare people in certain limited ways. But it depends more on people’s ability to crack the code than anything else. It helps you identify smart people, which is always useful, but what’s smart about them is that they can pick patterns in a test.

The other thing theses tests tell us is that people don’t know themselves. There is almost no correlation between people’s belief about their strengths and weaknesses as stated on a psychometric test and their actual strengths and weaknesses. Asking people about their strengths is very ineffective indeed.”

Neuroscientist David Rocks, Director and co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute, talking in People Management magazine.

I must admit I have never really been into psychometrics tests due to the mantra of ‘there is no right or wrong answer’. Of course there is a right or wrong answer. If you do not have the answer the recruiting organisation is looking for on their marking guide then do not pass go, do not collect a job.

Source: People Management. (2013) “Your Brain is Not Like a Computer”. People Management. September 2013, pp.34-35.